Month: May 2013

I was intending to write something about Macedonia, as it’s the next country on the Balkan List, but something rather more interesting is blowing up back home in London which makes me so furious that I can’t resist commenting on: the same-sex marriage bill currently being discussed in Parliament. Now, the main problem with same-sex marriage is that most politicians seem to regard it as a way of getting votes rather than an issue of principle. Because of this, same-sex marriage bills often get dragged into the middle of pre-existing political squabbles: this happened in France, where the UMP decided … Continue reading Pour Décourager Les Autres

Of all the countries we visited on this trip in which we spent enough time for me to feel I can judge them properly, Albania was the one I liked the most. This is probably because I’ve been obsessed with Albania for years on a level comparable only with Georgia, and for largely similar reasons. I was therefore absolutely convinced that I would enjoy Albania, so enjoy it I did. Albania’s recent past is one of the more absurd bits of European post-war history, so I’ll run you through it quickly. After the Second World War, Yugoslavia’s head of state … Continue reading A Brief History of Modern Albania